Perspectives

In her book, Perspectives-Sociolinguistics and TESOL, Nessa Wolfson (1) defines sociolinguistics as “the study of the interplay of linguistic, social, and cultural factors in human communication.” She is especially concerned with illustrating how Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) can incorporate sociolinguistics into their teaching of English as a second or foreign language. Historically, a common language (means of communication) has not only unified a particular culture, but it is also a means by which other cultures may interact with each other and discover the norms, practices, customs and social dynamics of other peoples. Various changes in the world have made the teaching of English and multiculturalism even more important. Freer trade, the spread of democracy and the emergence of the US as the world leader have all helped the spread of English as the global language. This has made the number of nonnative speakers of the language outnumber native speakers of English. Wolfson (viii) says her main purpose for writing the book is “To provide a critical overview of those aspects of sociolinguistics most relevant to members of the TESOL profession.” This report will discuss some of Wolfson’s main arguments regarding sociolinguistics and TESOL.

The first part of Wolfson’s book focuses on the cross-cultural differences that exist in speech behavior. It also covers the types of proble

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ines and an understanding of them is not only crucial to understanding how to use language in our own culture and appropriately interact with others, but it also allows us to detect some universal patterns that seem to be applicable from one culture to the next so we can detect their appropriate language interaction behaviors. For example, there are rules and patterns that exist when people greet one another and give an invitation of communicating that occur in a sequential and developmental manner. For example, “in a fully and successfully negotiated sequence, interlocutors will very frequently move turn by turn to complete the set of components necessary to produce a full invitation. In this way, leads and the set of responses and counter-responses which follow them are linked by discourse rules such that together they form what any native speaker would unambiguously identify as an invitation,” (Wolfson 121). The author attempts to give us an overview in the middle part of the book of the differences that exist in language. Whole chapters are devoted to miscommunication, language and sex, social variation, and dialect and standards. For example, where miscommunication is concerned, linguistic competence is often associated
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Some common words found in the essay are:
TESOL Wolfsons, Languages TESOL, English Wolfson, Standard English, Nessa Wolfson, teaching english, english language, spread english, Row NY, Book Report, native english-speaking societies, speech behavior, differences exist, lead attempt, sociolinguistic relativity, speech behaviors, native speakers, nonstandard dialects,
Approximate Word count = 1494
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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